Secrets, Socials, and Seigaku
by Sures1109
Summary: Clair Brown loves tennis, it's that simple. But then why has she given up on it? She's done with the sport and doesn't plan on going back. That was what she thought until she and her father moved to Japan and she started going to Seigaku. OC story
1. Chapter 1

This was going to be a pain, no doubt. There I was, standing in front of my new school, with no idea where to go. You would think that after doing this for a couple years you would get used to it. Yes, I said a couple years. My dad and me have been traveling the world for a while now. Why? Well we'll get into that later, but for now let me tell you about my day.

I was walking to the front door of the school. There weren't a lot of people outside; I came a bit early so I wouldn't get lost around the school. I figured if I woke up early and walked there I would have around 20 minutes to go to the front office and get my schedule. I walked up the concrete steps in my brand new Nike sneakers and opened the door into the strange place that I was eventually going to have to call my school.

After walking around for a good 10 minutes I finally found the office. 'Only 10 minutes till school starts I'm going to have to make this quick'. I opened the door and walked in. "Hello dear, how can I help you this morning?" A chipper voice asked.

I looked up. The woman at the front desk looked around 40- maybe 45 years old. She had dark brown hair that fell upon her shoulders, and some grey strands hidden in it as well. "Hi," I said with a smile, "I'm a new student here and I was wondering if I could get my schedule?"

"Transferring in the middle of the year? Well, that's awfully strange."

'Was that supposed to be a compliment?'

"Yes, well I just moved here so…"

"I see where from?"

'Can I just get my schedule and go?' is what I would like to say but I knew better.

"The United States, me and my dad moved down here for business" Are all staff as nosey as her?

"Interesting, well I'm sure you'll love it here. Now, what's your name Sweetie?"

"Clair Brown."

Sorry for the late introduction, but this is me. My name is Clair Brown I'm sixteen, and just moved here from California. More specifically LA or otherwise known as the golden coast. I have long brown hair that I always keep up in a ponytail and brown eyes, nothing extraordinary. Like I said before, my dad and I travel the world together. He has always wanted to settle down somewhere with me though. After my mother left us when I was nine he wanted to get away from that life and start a new one. And of course he brought me with him. We went to China and Rome. I even got to visit Paris, and of course my favorite place, London.

You're probably wondering where we are now, right? Well right now we have settled down in Japan. Yep, the one place I've never been. Don't worry I'm fluent in Japanese. My dad made sure that I at least know a little bit of every language, of course just the important stuff like 'hello my name is…' or 'could you help me I'm a little lost?'. He also made a rule that I must at least be fluent in three languages, and yes, you guessed it, one of those languages just so happens to be Japanese. But anyway back to my first day.

"Yes" the woman, said, "I have your schedule right here." She handed me the schedule and I started to look it over. First I would have English 1 as a foreign language. Then I would have to take an English literature class. After that I had lunch followed by science/history, and Geometry. Well, that was fairly simple. I looked at the time on my cell phone. 'Crap, 5 minutes till school starts, better speed this up.'

"Thank you very much Ma'am" I bowed. Sure I was new to Japan but I had most of the mannerisms down. "I'll be taking my leave now."

"Wait, honey." Great, now she was calling me honey, next it would be sugar. "Here's a pass in case you get lost and end up late to one of your classes. Feel free to take a look around."

"Thank you." I plastered a smile to my face.

All of a sudden the first bell went off. "Once again thanks for the help ma'am. I'll be off now."

"Okay, bye sugar. Enjoy your first day at Seishun Gakuen."

And there's the 'sugar' I was waiting for. Seishun Gakuen is the name of my school or Seigaku for short. I thought it was a pretty weird name at first too, but I accepted it. I made my way out of the Office and started trying to find my first class, English 1. The hallways weren't to crowded as I maneuvered my way through the people walking along them. After a short while I found my class, I took a deep breath and walked straight in.

All the students were scattered around the room, talking to each other, and they didn't seem to notice my presence at all. 'Great I'm invisible, and I promised myself I would stand out this year too'. I spotted the teacher and made my way over to him.

He was pretty young; he seemed to be in his twenty's, if I had to guess. I would say he's maybe twenty-six or twenty-seven years old. He also had a wedding band on his left hand. He had short black hair that seemed to stop right above his ears. And wore a big smile on his face. I could already tell that the teacher was a nice guy. "Hello, you must be Clair Brown the newbie, it's nice to meet you, I'm Mr. Tanner."

He held out his hand for me to shake. I took his hand and held back some laughter while saying. "Hi, it's nice to meet you to, it's the first time I've ever heard a teacher call someone a newbie."

"Sorry," He said maturely, "hope you didn't take any offense to it."

"None at all. I'm actually quite disappointed because that's what I was planning to introduce myself as."

He started chuckling "Well I see we have a comedian on our hands, this semester should be interesting." He said with a huge smile on his face. "Why don't you stand up here and I'll have you introduce yourself to the class".

"Yes, Sir." I motioned a salute with two fingers at him.

After the Bell rang all the students sat down and stopped talking as the announcements came on. Some of them started taking notice of me as the announcements came to an end. By the end of the announcements the whole class was whispering, about me I'm sure, after all it was only natural to wonder about something new. Of course by now I was quite nervous and just stared out the window at the school gates. There was a chair at the back of the room next to the window. Seeing as that was the only chair not occupied I was betting I would get that one.

"Attention class, as I'm sure you're all aware by now we have a new student. I'll let her introduce herself to you."

He turned to me and kindly smiled giving me the signal to start. I turned to the class with a giant smile. "Hi, my name is Clair Brown and I just moved here from The United States. It's nice to make your acquaintance."

I then bowed to the whole class. They all still looked at me with heightened interest.

"Does anyone have any questions for Ms. Brown?"

A couple hands went up. I picked the one all the way in the back. He had red hair with a patch on his face, and a huge grin almost reminding me of a little boy. "I'm Eiji Kikumaru, I wanted to know where in the United Stated do you come from?"

"I'm from California, more specifically LA." I said with a grin.

"Eh?" he shouted out loudly. "Why would you want to move away from a place like that?"

A sweat drop appeared on my head. "Um, it's kind of complicated." I said scratching the back of my head a bit.

Next I picked the boy behind him. He kept his eyes closed and had a smile on his face. The smile didn't really look genuine though. He had short brown hair that came down right before his shoulders and looked extremely calm. "I'm Fuji Syuusuke, why did you move here?"

Did these guys know how to read minds, it's like all the questions I don't want to answer, they just end up asking, but there's no point in whining about it. "Actually there isn't, it was more like we moved here in the spur of the moment."

Of course there were other contributing factors, but I wasn't going to mention that to a stranger. There was only one person left raising their hand now. She had long blonde hair that shined and bright blue eyes. Just from a first look you could tell she wasn't Japanese. I was thankful I wasn't the only one. "Hi, my name is Yumi Chesler, I just wanted to know if you played a sport or maybe you have a hobby?"

Yep, every question that I didn't want asked was definitely being asked. I was now positive that someone, somewhere in the world was out to get me, and he or she was definitely doing a good job at it. How was I supposed to answer this question? Tell them all about my promise with him? Well I guess it can't be helped, I'll just have to lie myself through this one. "I don't particularly have a hobby or a sport I like to play…um… I skateboarded to school…does that count?"

The class started laughing. "I'm going to take that as a no then." I mumbled to myself.

"Okay, You can all talk to Ms. Brown after class or at lunch, but now it's time for learning." The whole class gave a tired groan.

"If you could take a seat in the back by the window that would be perfect, I will gather the books you need for this class tomorrow." He said, ignoring his 'eager' students.

"Yes, sir."

I made my way towards the back of the class being followed by the curious eyes of my fellow classmates. I set my purse on the floor and took a seat, seeing as I didn't have any books yet I didn't see the need to bring a book bag to school. I glanced outside the window to look at the view. It was around 8:00 AM, the sun was still coming up and I had a perfect view of it. I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to find the cause of it. It was the Kikumaru guy.

"If you're from America why are you in this class? Isn't this class to easy for you?" He whispered.

He was right, my native language was English, and I knew from the start that this class was going to be a breeze. It was an easy A, but that didn't mean I wouldn't be bored out of my mind as I sat here for an hour and forty-five minutes.

"It is, but they put me in this class. I didn't get to sign up for my own schedule; they put me in whatever was open. I don't really have any complaints about it though, I'll pass this class easily."

He smiled at me. I swear he looked like a little kid on Christmas every time he smiled. "Do you mind if I see your schedule?" he asked, looking like he was about to jump out of his seat.

It might have been a little too early to muster up a smile, but I must have pulled it off because he smiled right back at me. "Sure, hold on a second."

I reached into my pocket and unfolded the paper. Once I made sure it looked presentable I handed it to him. He looked it over quickly and started smiling again.

"We have next block together. After that you have science/history with Fuji and Taka, and then you have Geometry with Inui and Tezuka." He said like I already knew these people.

I sat there trying to understand who the people he just named actually were. He must have noticed my confused face because he started to explain. "Fuji is this guy over here," he pointed to the guy behind him who had his eyes closed with the fake smile. "Hello nice to meet you, sorry for eavesdropping on you, but it seems we have third block together."

I just smiled back with his polite smile now on my own face. "I'm looking forward to it."

But before he could answer Kikumaru continued." Then Taka is another friend of Fuji's and mine, you'll like him he's very nice, just…" he sweat dropped.

"Just what?" I asked curiously.

"Just don't hand him anything sport related, okay?"

I sat there, confused as to why, but I guess I would find out sooner or later. "Okay, so who are the other people?" I whispered back.

"That's right, you have geometry with Tezuka our captain, and Inui he's nice just…"

Here we go again with the sweat drops. "Just what?" I asked, kind of cautious this time seeing as his face was getting paler by the second.

"Just, if he ever offers you something to drink, say no and walk away."

That kind of answer definitely scared me. What? Did he drug people by spiking their drinks? Or bring alcohol to school? Or did he-"Wait, um, that came out wrong, it's not what you think. He just isn't very good at making drinks is all? You know like protein shakes!"

He must have noticed the look on my face before to be answering this quickly. Although I have to say I felt a lot safer now. Fuji spoke up. "Kikumaru I think I should do the explaining from here on out, okay?"

"Okay." Kikumaru said with a pouting face.

Before I had a chance to laugh at his funny reaction something he said before peeked my interest. "Fuji-kun?"

"hmm?" he answered, focusing his attention on me.

"Before, Kikumaru said something about your captain. Could it be…you're all on a team or something?"

Kikumaru looked stunned, while Fuji's smile just got bigger. "Actually we are. We're all on the te-"

"Fuji, Kikumaru, Brown." God I hated my last name. "If you to would like to talk now you could always learn this after school with me?" Mr. Tanner threatened.

He smiled as he said this, but he was giving off a pretty deadly vibe. Kikumaru started stuttering as he spoke. "N-no sir, W-were sorry it won't h-h-happen again."


	2. Chapter 2

The class started snickering including my new friend Fuji and I. The class went on and soon after the bell rang, but before I could leave someone grabbed my shoulder. I turned around to see Kikumaru and Fuji. "Hoi, Clair, we were wondering if you could meet us after school by the changing rooms for PE?" Stated Kikumaru, still wearing that childish grin of his.

"How come?" I asked, honestly curious with the offer.

I thought through a couple of possibilities why, but in the end I came up with nothing. Fuji must've been observing me carefully and saw my uncertainty on the matter because he took over for Kikumaru on convincing me. "You wanted to know what sport we played right?" He said with a close- eyed smile. I looked at him carefully, I know he was smiling, but it felt like he was threatening me. "Aren't you curious?" He continued, knowing that my inquisitiveness would soon take over. "You'll probably end up meeting the whole team and make new friends, so isn't it a win-win situation for you?"

Oh, he was good. He must have been one of those observant types of people. Bet you he would be on the debate team too if he wasn't already playing a sport.

The rest of the day went by rather quickly. I met all the people Kikumaru was so happily telling me about in class. I also met a guy named Oishi at lunch. He was a friend of Kikumaru and Fuji's apparently, it turns out he was on the team too. When I asked what team though, he said that Kikumaru asked him to keep it a secret, and then he apologized with a smile as if saying 'I apologize for my friend, I can't control him.'

His friends were all quite friendly, though I never got to meet this captain that they all talked so fondly about. Inui told me he had to go to a meeting with the rest of the team captains of the school today. He said I would probably meet him after school. I didn't bother to ask Inui how he had found out about me meeting up with Kikumaru and Fuji after school, he seemed like the type to know everything, and I didn't want to find out what else he already knew. The final bell finally came around and I was exhausted. Geometry was the last thing I wanted to end my day with. I started making my way around the school, so I could meet up with Kikumaru and Fuji, till I finally found the changing lockers. They were right across from the tennis courts…

The tennis courts wow. It had been a year, six months, and 2 days since I gave up tennis. That's right, I said gave up tennis, I haven't played at all since I gave it up. You're probably wondering why I gave it up, right? I don't want to get into details, but to put it simply; I lost a bet due to my cockiness and made a promise not to go back on the bet. My number one rule is to never go back on a promise. I looked around for anyone that would know where Fuji and Kikumaru were and sighed. Another rule of mine is that I hate waiting. Where were they?

"Clair you came!"

I turned around to see Kikumaru jumping up and down like a little girl with a full-blown smile on his face. Behind him were most of the people I met today; there were only three unfamiliar faces. The most amazing thing was that right away I could tell who the captain was. He had brown hair that didn't have one strand out of place, and his serious expression gave you this feeling that his eyes were going to pierce you. He also sported a pair of thin-rimmed dark glasses. He stood out from the rest of the group somehow, like he was above them. I took a step towards him and held out my hand. Sure, we were in Japan but I felt like bowing to him in greeting wouldn't be enough.

"Hi, It's nice to meet you. My name is Clair Brown, but you can just call me Clair." I said, "You must be the team captain." I barely contained a smirk.

The whole time I couldn't help but be jumpy with anticipation. Of course, I knew he was the team captain without a doubt, but I just felt a rush of adrenaline spiral through me. He seemed strong, not like muscle wise, which he was by the way. The kind of strong I was talking about was leadership strong. Just by standing in his presence I felt like I could do anything. I stood there patiently waiting for a reply. "My name is Tezuka Kunimitsu," He said, his golden eyes studying me as well. "And I am the captain of the tennis team. It's nice to meet you too." We shook hands briefly in meeting.

Just as I thought, he's the captain of the tennis te-…wait what? _What_? Was he joking? Out of all the teams these guys could have been on, it had to be the tennis team? What did I do to deserve this? While shaking his hand I froze, it was like a nightmare come to life, but I only froze for a second, though I'm sure he noticed. He was going to say something, but before he had the chance Kikumaru started interrupted.

"Whoa Clair, how did you know he was team captain?" He said with wide, astonished eyes. He then turned accusingly to Oishi. "Did Oishi tell?" He pointed a finger at Oishi like a little kid. I couldn't help myself from laughing a little. "No, Oishi didn't tell me." I defended, "I can tell just by looking at him." I said, as though it were obvious.

Kikumaru still looked confused though. "Huh?"

"It's kind of hard to explain in words." I explained with a wry smile.

One boy in the back spoke up. "Well, that was one hell of an amazing guess."

"Ffsshhh."

Two boys stepped out from the group. The first thing I noticed was the one who had talked had bright violet eyes. His black, short hair stood up on his head almost like it was spiked. The guy next to him had a green bandana on his head and a permanent looking frown on his face. He almost reminded me of a snake, and did he just… hiss? "Um, thanks, I guess."

The boy with the violet eyes smirked and held out his hand to me seeking a handshake.

"My name is Takashi Momoshiro and this is Kaoru Kaidoh." He pointed at the boy with the bandana. I took his hand and shook it. "Nice to meet you too, Momoshiro."

I looked at Kaidoh and gave him a nod; he didn't look like the type who enjoyed human contact. "Nice to meet you too, Kaidoh."

Momoshiro corrected me with a grin. "Actually, I go by Momo." He said with a goofy grin on his face. I looked up at him and gave him a nod of understanding; he was surprisingly tall. I wonder how old he is?

He seemed to remember his forgotten, anti-social friend standing behind him and smirked. "And you can call him viper." He said, with a devious glint in his eyes.

Obviously Kaidoh didn't like that because next thing you know they started going back and forth in a verbal debate. "Who are you calling Viper brat?" He threatened calmly.

"Who else is the one hissing around here snake?" He countered.

"That's it, you're dead meat!" Kaidoh promised him.

Momo stood up straighter and crossed his arms. "I'd like to see you try." He said with a confident smirk, which just ended up only pissing off Kaidoh even more.

Before they could leap at each other Oishi started breaking them up. "Sorry about them, they're always like that." I turned to see Taka looking shyly down at the ground. I gave him a light punch to the shoulder, which made him look up in surprise. I smiled a genuine smile at him. "Hey don't worry about it." I said happily, "To tell you the truth I think it's quite funny actually." I glanced back at Oishi desperately trying to break them apart and smiled a bit wider.

Taka looked surprised at first, but smiled back at me. He seemed too gentle of a guy to be on the tennis team. Even if he is a pretty big guy; you would think that he didn't have the drive to play tennis. But hey, after all, I should know that when you step on that court some people become a different person completely. Out of nowhere Kikumaru dragged me out of my thoughts. "Oy, does anyone know where O'chibi is? He's late." Kikumaru pouted, he looked like he was upset over a missing toy.

A confused look came on my face. "O'chibi?" I questioned.

Momo answered. "That's what we call him; he's a freshman and he's already on the regulars, plus he's really short." Momo ended with a snicker.

"What's a regular?"

Inui answered this time, in a monotone voice, without looking up from his notebook. "The regulars are the top tennis players of the team, they compete in competitions in hopes of winning the national championship." I took the information in thoughtfully.

"Mmmm?" The pleased sound erupted from me as I thought about it more.

I contemplated this for a moment. They got to compete against _other_ schools? That means that they only get to compete against the best tennis players from each school. I could compete against the best and-no! Stop! What are you thinking Clair? Competing? Really? I haven't thought about competing since I gave tennis up.

No matter how happy it made me. I made a promise. It was thanks to my own stupidity in the first place that I couldn't play anymore. It was my own fault so…so why do I find myself wanting to break the promise I made. I would never want to break my number one self-rule just to play tennis! Right? It's probably from hanging around these guys. They all look so happy just from being able to play and I want that, but… who am I kidding? I made a promise and I refuse to go against my standards. As I was conquering my inner debacle Momo walked over to me. "Hey Clair, are you okay?" He said with an odd look.

I put a mask on my current emotion and smiled right away. To anyone else it would look real, but it wasn't, it was designed to trick people like that. "Yep I'm fine, just dazed off for a second. I'm really exhausted, I haven't gone to school in awhile." I said uneasily.

Momo looked at me funny. "What do you-."

"Sorry I'm late." Everyone turned to where the bored voice came from. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite place it. "Hoi hoi, O'chibi where have you been?" Kikumaru sprang like child over to wherever the voice was coming from. He was a fairly short boy, but since he was a freshman I guess it's only natural. The boy continued. "The teacher held me back to talk about my Homework." He said, getting to the point and not adding anything more or less into the answer.

I saw Tezuka gaze stoically at the freshman with a light scowl on his lips. "Next time you're late everyone will get one hundred laps around the courts." He said sternly.

"Yes sir." The boy said in a monotone voice, almost as if he didn't care. He sounded so familiar and he looked familiar too. His hat was still covering his face, so I hadn't really seen all of him yet. He stepped forward, but Kikumaru stopped him before that. "O'chibi there's someone we want you to meet." Kikumaru said with a childish grin.

I took a step forward from the back of the team and held out my hand to him in greeting. "Nice to meet-" But I never got to finish my sentence because after I stepped forward I saw his face.

My eyes widened with surprise I could feel it. I stood there stunned. Were things like this even possible, that I could possibly see this kid again? I thought it would never happen. He also seemed to be frozen too. He probably recognized me by now; after all he was always a smart kid (and a smart ass). After that I couldn't help but utter one thing. "Eh?"

My friend is an amazing person, she lost her sister at a very young age to down syndrome. She now has the opportunity, if she wins, to be to go to the Special Olympics and spread awareness about Down syndrome. Not only that, but she would have the opportunity to start a charity and help others as well. She really wants this and it would mean the world to her I'm sure if you could take some time and just click vote, PLEASE! She's 200 votes from winning! All you have to do is click vote!

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	3. Chapter 3

It was a bit awkward, but everyone was looking at us. Honestly, for a second I wasn't even sure if I was still breathing. Kikumaru finally broke the elongated silence. "Clair? O'chibi? What's wrong?" He asked, tilting his head in confusion.

It took me a second, but I replied, "I know him." Though a blunt answer it was true.

"Oh… wait, what?" Everyone said at the same time, not including Tezuka, Kaidoh, or Inui of course. The latter all remained still.

A smile broke out over my face as I gazed at him. "Ryoma Echizen, huh? I never thought I would see you again." I smirked at the unbelievable coincidence, going through all of our memories together. Once he recovered from shock his usual small smirk was plastered on his face as well.

"I thought I was rid of you forever, it's to bad." He said with an amused glint in his eye.

I started chuckling at the familiar smart-ass remark. I made my way towards him, forgetting about the handshake, and bent down as I brought him into a hug. After all, it had been three years since I saw him it was only natural. He started blushing from embarrassment and just stood there as I hugged him. He subtly lowered his hat so no one could catch sight of his face and the blush that now covered it. Everyone stood with wide eyes; even Tezuka, Kaidoh, and Inui who was writing data down faster then my eyes could follow. Momo interrupted as I pulled away from the hug with a giant smile on my face. "Wait, are you Echizen's girlfriend or something?"

Echizen glared daggers at Momo who had started backing away slowly from Ryoma's anger. I didn't answer him just to piss Ryoma off and god was it working. With each passing second everyone was staring in disbelief at him. He swiftly turned away and answered the question on everyone's mind. "No she's not. She's just someone I know from America who I haven't seen for awhile." He said with an annoyed sigh.

I pretended to look hurt and put a hand over my heart. Just for a special dramatic touch I started to tear up. "_Just?_ Ryoma, I thought we were more than that? I thought we had something special?" I said with a girlish whine.

Everyone was now glaring daggers at Echizen. I put my head in my hands as I pretended to cry. Really I was just laughing at Echizen's stunned face, but no one had to know that. "Echizen how could you hurt Clair like that?"

"You call yourself a real man?"

"Your to cruel O'chibi."

Ryoma was left speechless with wide eyes, he looked like a deer caught in headlights. It was hard not laughing at this I didn't know how much longer I could bare it. Ryoma tried to talk. "W-w-wait, b-but s-s-she-."

"No excuses take responsibility for your actions and say you're sorry."

I couldn't hold it in anymore, as I started cracking up. Echizen just glared at me; well aware of the position I had purposely put him in. If looks could kill, I would have been sent to hell ten times over. Everyone stared at me confusingly. Who could blame them? I mean to them I was just crying a second ago. After my laughter died down Oishi was the first person to break the confusion fluttering around the group. "So he didn't leave you?" He asked cautiously.

Him asking that only made me start chuckling more. I mean, the thought of Echizen and me? Together? Especially with the knowledge of our history together, it was seemingly impossible. I decided to end my fun and come out with the truth.

"It's kind of a long story, do you mind if we talk somewhere else?" I asked with a small, guilty smile.

Taka answered this time. "We could go to my dad's sushi restraunt?" He offered with a coy smile.

Kikumaru was the first to reply. "That's a great idea! Come on, I'll show you the way Clair." He started dragging me along eagerly, before I finally got my footing and stopped him.

"Wait, I have to grab my skateboard. How about I meet you in front of the gates?" I offered.

Everyone just nodded their heads and went to get changed out of their clothes as I started to run back into the school to grab my stuff.

I finally got my skateboard and started making my way outside. I saw them waiting at the entrance of the school for me. I ran down the stairs toward them and smiled. "Ready!" I said with a smile.

Kikumaru grabbed me and turned to his team with a giant smile again. "Clair and I will race you guys there since we both have something to ride." He looked at me and said. "Race you there!" Then bolted off in the direction of the shop, riding his bike. I turned with surprised eyes and screamed. "Wait up! I don't know which way to go!" Ignoring the laughter coming from my new friends behind me, I grabbed my skateboard and followed him. I could just barely make out his back with my eyes. I saw him make a right-turn up ahead and mirrored his movements once I got to the same corner.

It had been around ten minutes since we started this race and it felt like I would never get to this store. I sped up until I was right next to Kikumaru. Geez, he was fast! "Kikumaru, how much longer till we're there?" He turned his head slightly so he could still see the sidewalk, but talk to me at the same time.

"We'll be there any second now. I took the long way so that the rest of the team could catch up with us." He said, smiling with a huge grin as he explained it.

"What? If I knew that was the case I would've just walked with the rest of the team instead of skating a marathon!" I shouted at him.

He stopped suddenly which caused me to almost run into him, but I caught myself. "What's the matter?" I said. He looked at me with drool almost running down the side of his mouth. "We're here! Time for sushi!" He said as he opened the door to the shop with eagerness and enthusiasm. So much so that I thought he could run a marathon and still be able to run another one after that. I saw the whole team already at their tables eating and decided to sit next to Echizen, seeing as we had to explain to them how we knew each other anyway. Momo asked the question that everyone was curiousto hear about. "So Clair, How do you know Echizen? He told us that he met you in America, but that's it."

I looked at him confirming that I could tell the story. He nodded his head in agreement. "Well, I guess I should start off by telling you a bit about myself in order to tell you the story, now where to begin." I pondered to myself.

Everyone was now silent and I had gained everyone's full attention.

"Well, I was born in America but lived in LA most of my life. When I introduced myself this morning at school I guess you could say I was kind of lying about where I lived though." Fuji looked at me confused. "How were you lying? You said you lived in LA, don't you?" He asked with a light tone.

"To be more precise I've spent most of my life in LA, plus the last place I came from was LA, but since I was nine I've been travelling around. I've been to Europe, China, Paris, Etc…"This time Oishi spoke in a worried tone. "But why?"

I sighed in deep thought and casted my eyes towards the empty plate in front of me. Might as well tell them the parts they need to know, they would probably find out sooner or later. "The reason we travelled around is because we wanted a new life, and by 'we' I mean my dad and I. You see, my mom left my dad and I when I was nine, I never really knew why, but I didn't need to, the point was she left. My dad didn't know what to do with himself after that, and then one day he came up with an idea…

"_Daddy what are you doin'?" From as far as I could tell he was packing all of his clothes in a suitcase. He turned around and looked at me with bags under his eyes. He hadn't slept in weeks; it was almost hard to watch him do this to himself. He tried to smile for me, but it just came out strangled. "I'm leaving, sweetie."_

"_What? You can't just leave me here. Pwease don't go." The little me started tearing up. "It's not fair! You can't go! I won't let you! No! No! No! No! No!"_ _I was having a full on hissy fit now. Then a simple solution popped up in that nine-year-old head of mine. I stopped crying as I watched him turn his back on me and continue packing. I guess it was too painful to watch me._

"_Don't worry Clair, A good friend of mine said he would take care of you. He's really nice and so is his family. He has a little boy 3 years younger than you too. I'll be back for you, daddy just has to straighten himself out first so he can be an even better daddy for you, okay?"_

"_No." I whispered with a broken expression on my face._

"_What was that Clair?" he was still packing, I had to get him to look at me._

"_I said no, I won't go "He looked at me and turned around to face me completely this time, he even bent down to my level so we were nose-to-nose._

"_Listen Clair, this man is very nice, I promise you'll like him. Besid-." I grabbed his arm with my little hands, and talked calmly. "You're wrong. I won't like him." He looked at me patiently. "Clair trust me you wil-."I raised my voice this time. "I won't like him because he's not you!" I shouted at him with a shaky voice._

_It was silent. I slowly looked up at his face; he looked completely heartbroken. He pulled me into a crushing hug and whispered in my ear. "What do you want me to do Clair? Your mother left me, and because of me she left you too. I don't know how to take care of a child! That was what your mother promised to do!" He mumbled into my ear. He was on the verge of breaking down._

_I hugged back. "Then take me with you. I'll follow you wherever you go. You don't have to be beside me all the time. I can learn to take care of myself too. You can do your job, just let me tag along I promise I'll be good." I started crying. "Just pwease *__**sniff**__*____don't____send me away daddy pwease?" I begged with blurry eyes._

_He hugged me even harder. "You can follow me around the world honey. It'll be you and me; we'll start over. It'll be our own little adventure." He whispered with determination in his voice._

_I was eleven years old as of last month and dad and I were driving in the car together. Dad had told me he wanted me to meet a friend of his in New York, New York. "Dad, as long as I get to do some shopping and can rally a bit then I'm fine with however long you want to stay." I said looking out the window at all the people going about their business. _

_He looked over at me and a smile came over his face. "Good, then you'll love this guy." I could tell from his eagerness that he was really excited to meet this guy._

_I looked at him confused. "What do you mean?"_

"_It's a surprise, just wait till we get there. Hey, You brought your racket with you right?" He said with a sudden realization._

"_Of course, I don't leave home without it." I said taken aback with the thought of ever leaving my racket somewhere that I can't get to it._

_He pulled up into a park and put the car into park as well. "Good, you'll need it." He said swiftly._

_He turned off the car and got out. I opened my door and followed right behind him looking at all the scenery as I caught up to him. He abruptly stopped causing me to run into him. "Thanks for the warning dad." I said with a bit of sass._

_He ignored me and walked up to someone else with a wide smile. They shook hands and started talking for a second, until the other man looked to me and smiled. I gave him a wave and a suspicious stare. My dad caught my stare and motioned me over to the unfamiliar person. I cautiously walked over to my dad, while keeping at a safe distance from the stranger in front of me. "Dad, who is this guy?" I asked frankly._

_Dad chuckled heartedly." Clair this is the man I'm always telling you about. The tennis player." He said with a wink in my direction. _

_All of a sudden everything in my head clicked. I came out from behind my dad and held my hand out towards him. He looked at me in surprise. "My name is Clair Brown, it's an honor to meet you Mr. Echizen." After a moment of surprised shock laughed in delight, but shook my hand anyway." No need to be so formal Clair, after all, me and you are practically going to be family soon." He said with a wide grin that reminded me of my own father's._

_I gave him a confused glance. What is he talking about? My dad decided to speak up at this time. "You see Clair, we're going to be staying here for six months or so, and Nanjiro offered to give us a place to stay, isn't that nice?"_

_My mind went blank. I was going to be staying with __**the**__ Nanjiro Echizen? __**The**__ world renound tennis player? Am I dreaming?_

_I snapped out of my thoughts when i saw something behind Nanjiro, well more like someone. There was a little boy, who looked to be around nine, standing behind Nanjiro. He wasn't hiding like I was; he just looked bored to be there. Nanjiro followed my stare. "This-" he pushed the boy forward so he was in front of me. "Is my son, Ryoma."_

_I didn't know he had a son. "Please look after him while you're in our care." He said with a wolfish grin._

"_I will look after him with my life." I saluted him. The two adults ended up laughing at my seriousness on the matter._

"And that's how I know Ryoma. We grew up together for about 6-7 months." Everyone looked deep in thought. Except Inui, he was righting down data about me throughout my whole story. I looked up at the clock, it was getting close to 9:00 PM. "Helloooo? Guys? Are you awake?" I asked with a sudden unease to how quiet it was.

Momo looked upset. "What's wrong Momo?" He looked up at me with his violet eyes piercing right through me. The he started pouting, "You didn't tell us you could play tennis." I froze at my sudden realization at how much I had actually said about myself. What to do about it now is the question. "Notice how I said _used_ to Momo, as in, not anymore." He looked at me skeptically. I guess I should have seen the next question coming. "Why not?" He asked with an eyebrow raised.

Okay, so I guess I set myself up for that question. Okay Clair think, think, and think. I looked up to the clock again and thanked my previous schools for their theatre programs. "Oh my goodness! Is that the time? My dad is going to kill me! Sorry guys I have to go!" I grabbed my stuff and opened the door, but stopped at the entrance and turned towards them. "Thanks for the food, and I'll see you guys Monday. Bye bye!" I said with a mischievous wink.

I slammed the door and grabbed my skateboard and skated till I got back to my place. That was a close call, they almost found out, although I guess I left them a bit suspicious. No matter, I have all weekend to think of an excuse. I opened the door to my apartment that my dad and me shared and walked in. He said he wouldn't be home tonight and would be staying with a friend of his for work. I told him I didn't mind, which I didn't; it was nice to have some alone time. I hopped into my PJ's and turned off all the lights and climbed into with a smile bed. It was definitely a good idea to move here. Life is going to be a whole lot more interesting.


	4. Chapter 4

The next morning my dad called and said he would be home by late afternoon. He suggested that I go explore town and get to know the area while he's gone. I decided I would skateboard around the park and see the scenery, maybe even take a nap? I got my skateboard and went outside and worked on eventually finding my way to the park. Once the park entrance came into view I sped up and prepared to jump the stairs ahead of me. I figured I could cut across the tennis courts to get to the park, which was just beyond the tennis courts, much faster. I jumped the stairs easily with my skateboard, but as I landed at the top of them my skateboard hit something that shouldn't have been there. With a surprised yelp I fell off my skateboard and landed on the cold concrete below me. When I looked round to see what I had landed on I almost swore. "You're kidding, what idiot leaves a tennis racket at the top of some stairs?" I asked myself angrily.

I picked the racket, and myself, up and looked the racket over for any damage. Upon close inspection I instantly recognized it. I'd seen this racket before in magazines. This wasn't just any racket; this racket was the DNX 7. I knew everything about this racket! It weighs 295 grams, and it is 27 inches long, it has a head size of 645 cm2, and it's string pattern was 16 x 18. It was somewhere around $203 in America, so here in Japan it was around 17,417 yen. Wow, that was a lot of money.

The question now is what idiot left it on the top of the stairs. If I actually ended up finding whose racket this was I was going to let him have a piece of my mind.

I started to get up and flinched as I felt a stinging sensation in my arm. I looked over my arm only to see that my forearm was bleeding, not to badly, but enough so that a small red trail of blood dripped down my arm. It didn't really hurt; it was more of a stinging sensation, which didn't bother me as much as it should have. I've always had a rather high-tolerance for pain. The icing on the cake was that I was more concerned about who left the racket out here than myself. God just listen to me, I think a racket is more important than my own safety. _I would be less angry if it was a piece of crap racket instead of this expensive thing. This isn't even out in stores yet._

I got up, grabbed the racket, and got back on my skateboard. I started looking around the tennis courts trying to find someone who would be looking for their racket. After a few minutes I stopped to get water from a fountain, but that's when I saw a group of guys doing stretches together. They all had the same uniform on and held rackets except for one of them. I happened to over hear their conversation as they finished up their stretching. "What do you mean you don't know where it is?" One of them yelled.

I looked over to the boy who had yelled so abruptly. He had short brown hair with a blue cap to cover it up and a band-aid placed vertically over the end of his left eyebrow. He was yelling at another boy who had hair like Victoria Beckham, except his hair was red. The latter started yelling back. "I've looked for it everywhere! I don't know where I dropped it, it's not my fault!"

"What do you mean it's not your fault? You're the one who brought it with you and put it down somewhere and forgot it. Wasn't that a new racket too?"

Another boy with glasses and long blue hair interceded the conversation." If I recall it was the new DNX 7 right?"

The red head spoke again." It doesn't matter what it was, I can always buy another one tonight."

Then, what seemed like the leader of the group approached him. I could tell he was the leader because he had the same aura as Tezuka. He had grey hair and a beauty mark under his right eye. Just from looking at him you could tell he was full of confidence. Simply put he looked like he had a big ego. He started to talk. "You're right, you can always buy a new one, but the point is you don't have a racket now, and nobody brought their spares with them, so you can run laps while ore-sama and the team practice." All the while he said this with a smirk plastered to his face. I couldn't help but sweat drop at him calling himself ore-sama. _What a work of art this guy is._

After much debate I decided I should tell them about the 'missing' racket now. After all, how many DNX 7's do you see around here anyways, and if I ended up being wrong I can just apologize afterwards. I had nothing to lose…except some of my pride if I ended up being wrong. I sweat dropped at the thought. I came out from behind my hiding place and made my way towards the court on my skateboard. I then dropped the skateboard off by the bleachers and walked from there. "Excuse me?"

They all turned to look at me. Obviously wondering what it was I could possibly want. I turned to look at the red headed boy and asked calmly "Would this happen to be yours?" I took the racket out from behind my back and showed it to him. He looked at it for a second until he became _very_ angry _very _quickly and grabbed it from me. Out of instinct I yelped. "Hey!"

" 'Hey' nothing, you stole this from me you thief!" He yelled.

My face dropped into udder shock. Was this guy crazy? Maybe he had a disability or something because I could have sworn he just accused me of being a thief. I laughed at him with force as I tried again. "I'm sorry, could you repeat that? Because I could have sworn you just called me a thief."

"Are you deaf girl? You stole my racket stupid! Of course I'm calling you a thief!" He continued.

I brought my hand up to my face and put my thumb and forefinger to the bridge of my nose. Instead of trying to act calm like I convinced myself too, I felt my anger rising, when all of a sudden I couldn't take it anymore. It was silent and the whole team was watching me, waiting for some sort of answer. My hair was covering my face so you couldn't see my face and that's when I exploded on him.

"Screw it!" I yelled, shocking them all with my loud tone. "I was going to be calm instead of yelling at you for leaving a racket like this out, but forget it! You're calling _me_ a thief _and_ stupid for _your_ stupidity?" The team took a cautious step back like I was a ticking bomb. I took a step toward the red head still feeling the need to explain what exactly happened to him. "I was taking a short cut through here on my skateboard and I jumped the stairs and landed on _your_ racket moron! When I found out it was a DNX 7 I thought the person who lost it would be panicking to get back something this expensive and amazing!" I shouted in his face not caring about personal space at this point. "But no, I come here out of the _goodness_ of _my_ heart to have some guy that looks like-like-like Victoria Beckham yell at me and accuse me of something I didn't even do?" I questioned him accusingly. "Take your racket and shove It somewhere where you can find it next time, like your head seeing as there's space up there!" I breathed in and out roughly as I tried to gain back control of my emotions.

Everyone besides the Beckham boy looked at me in disbelief. His face was bright red from being so angry, and then after a couple moments of silence he yelled at me. "You think I look like Victoria Beckham?"

"_That _was the only thing you picked out from that conversation?" I shouted annoyed with his _selective_ hearing. "God you're slow!"

"Okay, " he said with a cunning smile. "if you really found the racket prove it!"

I simply held up my left arm without hesitation, which now only consisted of dried blood. The blood trailed from my forearm to my knuckles, but you could clearly see the cuts and scrapes from when I fell because it was still slightly bleeding.

"Ewwww!" Beckham boy squealed and backed away. I rolled my eyes at his childishness.

"What are you ten?" I asked sarcastically. "This is because of _your_ racket and _your_ stupidity moron!"

The boy with the blue cap started to talk. "Why would she steal a racket from you and then give it back Gakuto, think it over for awhile idiot."

The boy with the cap then turned to me and said "Sorry about that, you're right. Forgive him, he's an idiot." He bowed a bit grudgingly; he wouldn't have to do this if it wasn't for his teammate in the first place. "What's your name?"

I was still calming down from yelling so much. I don't think I've yelled so much since I lived with Ryoma, so it kind of took me a little time to register what he was saying. I looked up toward him. "My name is Clair Brown." I said bowing slightly in return. "And you guys are…?" My gaze wandered to the rest of the team.

What I assumed to be the team captain took a step forward and answered. "I am Keigo Atobe, be awed by my prowess." He purred? I raised an eyebrow, but continued on to the next person. "This is Munehiro Kabaji my closest friend." Atobe pointed to the huge guy next to him with dark skin and an emotionless face. He looked kind of creepy.

The guy with the blue cap started to speak again. "I'm Ryou Shishido, and this is Choutarou Ootori." He pointed to the guy next to him. He was a bit smaller than Shishido and had white hair, and just like Taka he looked innocent and gentle. To sum up what I gather from his appearance, he looked like someone who wasn't cut out to play tennis. Shishido stepped toward me and held out his hand "It's nice to meet you Clair."

I stepped forward and shook his hand. "Under these circumstances the pleasures all mine." I replied knowingly.

Ootori then bowed to me. "We're sorry for the attitude of our teammate, please forgive him." He sounded so sincere. If anything he was more kind than Taka. I stood there for a moment before answering him when an idea sprang into my head. A huge smile lit up my face, and I held up two fingers. "Okay," I agreed. "I'll forgive him on two conditions."

He stood looking surprised at first, but changed his attitude to serious in a second. "Anything." he replied.

This guy was_ too_ cute. "First, I want to know the rest of your names." I said with a goofy smile. He looked at me in disbelief as I smiled at him. "Huh?" He said. "And two, I lost my way on the trip over here, so I need you to show me how to get home." I said with an embarrassed grin.

He just stood there spacing out before I waved a hand in front of his face. "Hellooooo, anyone home? Is it a deal or not?" I asked him.

He seemed to come back to life as I said that. He smiled at me and said, "It's a deal."

I turned to the rest of them and clasped my hands behind my back as I started to talk again; this time calmly, and with a smile on my face. "So what are the rest of your names? Let's start with Beckham boy. What's your real name?"

From that comment everyone stifled a laugh. Even the boy with the hard gaze in the back smiled a bit. "Why you little" I heard him mutter. "…Ahem! My name is Mukhai Gakuto, It's a _pleasure_ to make your acquaintance." He stated with a fake smile while bowing. I strained a smile right back at him. "No, I think I'll stick with the name Beckham boy, it suits you more." I said with a sadistic grin.

With that comment he growled as I earned a few more snickers from his team. I turned to the boy with blue hair and round glasses he looked _very…_smart (sexy). He's probably the brain of the group. He noticed me looking at him and answered accordingly. "My name is Yusshi Oshtari." He said with a heart-stopping smile.

I nodded and forced myself to move on to the next person. He looked at me like I was a celebrity or something of that caliber. He had messy tousled hair as if he just woke up this morning, and his eyes were an auburn color too. He had eyes to match the color of his hair. "My name is Jirou Akutagawa, nice to see you-I mean meet you."

He looked _really _excited to meet me. I couldn't exactly figure out why, but it didn't really matter to me. I turned to the final person in the group who I hadn't named yet. He just looked at me almost as if he was annoyed at my presence. As I waited patiently for his name, which obviously he had no intention of giving me, I started to glare back at him. Well, if he was glaring at me for no reason I might as well do the same, I was stubborn like that. Before I could come up with another plan, besides my genius glaring idea, Ootori interrupted me. "Sorry Clair, he's not very talkative, that's-."

But I cut him off by putting my hand in front of his face and just looked at him with a smile. He had a confused look on his face. "The deal was that each of you would introduce yourselves to me, just because he's acting childish and won't talk doesn't mean he can go back on the deal. Don't worry though he _will_ introduce himself to me. "

I must of hit the right nerve because he clearly looked annoyed with me.

"Who are you calling childish girl?" A smirk lit up my face as I continued to talk to Ootori and not spare a glance at the nameless boy behind me. "See, what did I tell you? I got him to talk."

He started to get very angry and walked toward me, furious. As he neared he stood two feet away from me. I got a clearer view of him now. His hair looked like he had bangs going all around his head. His hair and eyes were light brown. But his eyes looked intimidating. If I had to guess I would say he was the kind of guy who was all business and no pleasure. I bet he had one hell of a social life. He grabbed me by the collar of my uniform and pulled me up. I smirked a little more. "Now is this really anyway to treat a lady?" I asked playfully.

I really knew how to push peoples buttons. That's what my dad always told me. Growing up he said I should always read people and look behind the appearance to find out things about them that you normally couldn't tell by just looking at them. As I grew up I started noticing people more and their behaviors and movements. Everyone had a weakness, you just had to find it by looking in the right places, and this man in front of me was no different than everyone else. He brought me back to reality by yanking on my shirt. "Don't mess with me little girl. Don't you know you should pick on people your own size? How old are you anyways?" He sneered.

To me he wasn't that scary. What I mean by that was sure he was trying to be intimidating, and scare me away, but boy was he going to be mistaken if he thought I was going to step back from a challenge.

I chuckled a bit, which took him by surprise. "Sorry, I'm not obliged to answer."

I looked up at him with a smirk still playing at my lips, and fire in my eyes. His eyes looked as if he wanted to kill somebody. I found his weakness effectively, he hated being talked back to or underestimated. In other words he hated defiance. He surprised me by pushing me backwards. I tripped once again and landed on my already injured arm, which caused me to hiss in pain.

Shishido spoke up after that." Oy, all she wanted was your name. What's your problem? I won't help you with your return shots if you keep up that attitude."

I looked at my arm again; it just started to bleed more. _Great, I'm going to get blood all over my new uniform_. But that was something I could worry about later, because right now I had an idea, a brilliantly stupid idea.

"Oy!" I called from the ground as I started to pick myself up. The blood was running down my arm now, and dripping onto the floor. The rest of the team besides Ootori stared at me in interest. Probably because I hadn't run away yet and even chose to talk back to this guy. "You're new on this tennis team aren't you?"

It was silent so I guessed I was right. I continued trying to get up off the ground staggering around a bit. "Heh. I knew it, I could tell just by looking at you." I was now fully up and staring into his eyes with a challenging glare. He growled out. "What did you say?"

"You know if you're _that _weak you shouldn't act like you're so strong, someone just might take the challenge of lowering your ego down a peg or two. Then what'll be left of you? Just pure humiliation."

He looked like the embodiment of the devil himself. I'm pretty sure if he had the choice of killing a demon, or me I would be the first to go. "Girl, you better shut your mouth before you get hurt. You don't know what you're talking about."

I loved every second of this. I loved the thought of a carefully set up plan working; and executing it perfectly sent a wave of adrenaline through me. "Oh, but I think I do, all to well. You're new on the team, hell you probably just started tennis, and you need your sempai to help you. Pathetic." I said with pity.

Ootori spoke up. "Clair, I really don't think you should provoke him like this-." But I ignored him and kept talking to this mystery man.

"How about this _boy_," I goaded. "I just thought of a great idea. If you can return three shots to me not only will I leave, but I'll also take back everything I said and you'll never have to see me again. But if I win you'll say you're sorry and introduce yourself to me. So what do you say?"

Just like I had planned. He thought it over for a minute probably taking in the fact that I did know the name of that racket so I had to know a little about tennis. But I planned this all out to the "T". I also thought about the promise I made in the past and found a loophole with it that I had found many times before. My promise was I would never play tennis seriously again. It was simple, I just wouldn't play _seriously _with him; I had no intention of being serious from the start. This would just be another little game to me. He looked up at me with a mirror image of my smirk on his face now. "It's a deal, no girl can get a serve past me."

Plus not only do I get a sorry and his name from him, but I also get to hurt his pride a little. Yes, I was a little sadistic. But come on, if he was acting all cocky to you, you would want to knock him down a peg too. Shishido and Ootori knocked me out of my thoughts.

"You're in no shape to play, against him!" Shishido protested.

I stared at Shishido confused. "What do you mean? Why not?"

He lifted up my left arm that was stilling dripping blood onto the floor and became irritated. "_This_ is why not."

"Oh…," It was strangely silent as he gauged my reaction. "I forgot I had that." Everyone just stared at me dumbfounded, except the boy whom I made the bet with. I think I'll call him no-name. Ootori came into view. "What do you mean you forgot? Doesn't it hurt?" He asked worriedly.

I turned to him with a shrug. "Yeah, It does. But it's nothing that will get in the way of me winning, besides I've had worse." I said, trying to calm him down a bit.

Atobe smirked at me. "Ore-sama thinks you aren't thinking this through." He said, catching my attention. "Not only are you a girl and injured, but ore-sama chose him to be on the regulars for a reason."

"Ehhhh? So I guessed right, you are the captain of the team. So if you're so confident in your player how about we make another bet?" He looked at me with sparked interested. They probably all thought I had gambling issues. Atobe had an amused glint in his eyes as he said: "Ore-sama is listening."

I smiled. "It's nothing to big of a bet, but I saw a limo parked in front of the courts and I'm just going to presume it's yours. So if I win you can drive me home instead of just pointing the right way out to me. I always did like to fide in style." I said with a challenging shrug.

He replied within seconds of the proposition. "Deal. You can borrow Gakuto's racket seeing as you held such an interest in it." He teased.

Atobe smiled at me almost as if inviting me to try and beat him knowing I wouldn't win, thinking it was something to pass the time. The sun was setting as I stepped onto the courts. In my hand was the DNX 7. I stood for a second fixing the wires and turning the handle in my hand. It was almost something of a habit when I was excited. I would take the racket in my hand and twirl the handle of it. I put the racket in my left hand, which just so happened to be my hurt one. I flinched at first as I tried swinging, but slowly got used to the pain till it was just a numb stinging sensation, if that makes any sense. I could hear Ootori talking in the back. "Atobe, you have to stop them! Clair is hurt, and playing like that against Wakashi could make it even worse."

Ootori looked really worried about me. I smiled, he just met me ten minutes ago and he was already concerned for my well-being. I didn't care about myself that much. After all, I thought the racket held a higher priority then my safety ten minutes ago too. Oshtari agreed with Ootori as well. "You know he's right Atobe, but you just want to see how this will turn out right?" Atobe smirked at his long time blunette friend. "Is it so wrong to see what will become of this affair?" he asked with his eyes stuck on my figure as I prepared myself.

Oshtari answered with a knowing smile and followed Atobe's gaze. "On so many levels." he muttered. "I'm going to go judge the game." Oshtari said, He walked onto the courts and made his way to the judge chair swiftly. After he had successfully climbed to the top the match began. "You may start." he announced.

No-name tried taunting me. "Are you sure you want to do this little girl? I'll make you get on your hands and knees to apologize when I win. I wouldn't want you to hurt your arm anymore than it already is."

I walked back to the base line and started bouncing the ball against the ground ready to serve when necessary. This guy was starting to piss me off. I could easily win this, but I had to relax myself first. I figured I would give him three of my best serves. If he needed help from Shishido on returning then he shouldn't be able to hit my serves back. I wanted him to give it his all though. I knew it wouldn't be fair because according to my last bet I wasn't allowed, but I wanted him to give it his all and in order to do that I had to piss him off more. I smiled and looked at him with amusement dancing in my eyes.

"I'm fourteen, _little_ boy, so don't worry about me, I can take care of myself. Don't worry though I'll just go easy on you. Try not to hurt yourself okay?"

He looked mad at first but it was quickly replaced with a smirk to match my own. "Heh? We'll see who's laughing at who in the next ten minutes."

"five, actually."I said.

He looked at me confused. "What?"

"I said five. Five minutes is all I need to beat you."

He growled at me. "Just serve the damn ball!"

A smile danced on my lips. "As you wish."

I took a deep breath and threw the ball into the air. My racket went back behind my head as I jumped for it. As I was nearing the ball my racket came forward from over my head and smashed into it.

As I landed I smiled, and looked up to see no-name still standing in position waiting for the ball. When I looked at his face I saw many emotions pass over him disbelief, shock, anger, rage, and then blank. He looked like his mind had shut off on him for a moment. The ball had just whizzed passed him. I guess that's what he gets for underestimating me.

He raised his head and peeked at me with hidden interest, while moving over to the left side of the court. I didn't have time to look at his teammates faces and truthfully I didn't care about their shock. The only one on the court right now was him and he had my undivided attention. I moved to the other half of the base line and lined myself up again for the second serve. I decided to make this one special. After all I didn't want him to get kicked off the team or something because of me. He would have to loose to my secret moves or else the rest of his team would look at him as weak and not useful.

I got into my serving position again, except this time I moved a little farther away from the base line, which he probably noticed. I threw the ball up in the air so it would have a backwards spin on it and jumped once again for it. As I moved my racket to smash the ball I let it hit the left side of my racket and roll off to the right of it. As the ball moved over the net it headed for him, of course that's how it appeared to everyone. Until the ball suddenly turned and went straight around him, as if there were a bubble surrounding him, and went straight into the net on his side of the court. He stood there stunned, probably unable to believe what he just saw. He looked at me for clarification with a newfound determination in his eyes. I smiled at him, a genuine one. I was glad he was taking an interest in my shot. Then I happened to hear the calls from the sidelines. Gakuto started shouting, "What the hell just happened? What was that?"

I looked over to the sidelines to see all eyes on myself. Ootori, Gakuto, and Shishido looked at me in surprise. I then turned my eyes on the two who were smiling Atobe and Oshtari. The two just looked at me like I was some new form of entertainment for them, which I didn't like. I turned back to No-name with a smirk on my face and explained it to him. "I call that my bubble ball. You could probably see why. I give the serve a backspin as I toss it into the air and let it slide over my strings as I hit it to give it a bit of a turn on it. That way once it gets to you it just goes around you and down into the net almost like a bubble surrounded you. If you were to hit it back without knowing what it was it would most likely bounce off in the completely opposite direction of what you had planned."

He looked at me with…a smile? No, his smile was like he was anxious for my next move, but shouldn't he be angry, or upset, even shocked would have passed for a reasonable emotion. He must have seen my face as I was looking for a solution and he gave out a light laugh. "It seems I've underestimated you as an opponent little girl, but even I'm not so stubborn as to say that what you just did wasn't talented…but, that doesn't mean it can't be returned." I really didn't want to tell him that the only one who had ever returned that shot was Ryoma and his father Nanjiro the world renound tennis player. If he thought he had the power to return my shots then hey, all the more power to him.

But it was my turn to look at him in disbelief. He did just say that I was talented. I haven't known him for to long, but I could tell that he wasn't the type of guy to give compliments out easily. I took the compliment without a second to spare. "Thanks, but don't get all soft on me yet I still have one more serve and I want you to give it your all. Try and return my shot, if you can, that is."

He nodded his head at me in understanding and got back into his returning stance. I copied his movements and got myself into serving position as well. I threw the ball up once again with a backspin and hit it lighter than before to my opponent. It came to him slower than my last one did. He pulled his racket back, as he got ready to hit the ball. As it came closer the ball dropped onto the ground and kept spinning in circles. As it spun it made swirl patterns in the clay on the ground. When it stopped the ball was in the middle of one big swirl. It was dead silent. It was clear that he had lost and I had won.

Once again everyone looked at me surprised, but No-name just walked forward and hopped the net so he was over on my side of the court. He walked toward me until he was arms length away.

He looked up at me with a slight irritation on his face, and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm sorry for my attitude before, let's start over. My name is Wakashi Hiyoshi it's nice to meet you."

He mumbled the whole thing to me, but hey I got what I wanted, a name and an apology. I grabbed one of his hands to shake it while smiling and said. "My name is Clair Brown and I'm fourteen and as you can probably tell from my uniform I attend Seigaku. It's nice to meet you Wakashi. That was a good-um-I guess it technically wouldn't be a match. How about it was a good bet?"

He sighed. "Sure, let's go with that."

As I walked off the court Atobe and the rest of his team started clapping. I handed the racket back to Gakuto and breifly thanked him for letting me borrow it. Ootori just dragged me over to a bench and started wrapping my injured arm, while the rest just asked questions. Shishido started. "So you attend Seigaku, huh? I've never seen you around though."

"I just moved here from America two days ago."

Ootori decided to ask a question too. He was to busy concentrating on my wound so he didn't look up. "You must be amazing at playing tennis, huh? How often do you practice?"

I looked away from the team as I answered, my face falling a bit. "I don't."

"You don't what?" Gakuto asked, completely oblivious.

"…I don't practice."

Ootori stopped wrapping my arm. It went silent. I didn't look at their faces, but I didn't have to. They were probably all surprised; after all it was impossible to be that good without practicing. Well, I proved that theory wrong. I truly never practiced and hadn't played since I made that promise. Sure, I watched people play, but that's where I drew the line. Today was the first time in a year and a half that I got to hold a tennis racket. Oshtari broke the silence. "What do you mean you don't practice?"

He asked calmly with a serious tone in his voice. I lifted my head to look at them all. My eyes landed on him first. The redhead looked almost suspicious, observing every small movement I made. Oh, I see, he was trying to read me. I answered him with a monotone voice. "I mean what I said 'I don't practice'; I haven't played tennis for at least a year and a half." I answered honestly.

Every single one of them held surprised faces with widened eyes except one person, Atobe. "And why haven't you played in that long?" Atobe added seriously.

My eyes widened as I stayed silent. I wouldn't tell them. No, It's not that I wouldn't, I couldn't. I felt as if I had no voice at all, I felt so vulnerable right then. What was worse was that Atobe had noticed the effect the question had on me. He quickly changed the subject. "Well it is your business, so you don't have to tell us. Ore-sama shall take you home now. The rest of you can run back to the school for your daily exercise." There was a collective sigh between the team.

Ootori spoke next. "There all done, sorry it took so long, I don't really do things like this often." I looked at the bandage that he wrapped my arm in. It didn't hurt as much anymore. "It's fine, thanks for fixing me up Doc." I had my mask back on; you know the one with the big smile on it? Everyone just seemed to calm down at the sight of me smiling again. It became less tense.

Everyone else besides Atobe started walking back to their school. I handed Atobe my address that I had written down on a piece of paper he had given me and he opened the door to the limo for me to get in. Before he got in he handed it to the driver and followed in to the limo after. I had a feeling this was going to be a long ride.

The car started and took off and so did our conversation. "So, you said you attended Seigaku. Do you know any of the tennis team?" I smiled a knowingly. I knew that this question was going to pop up. "Actually, I do. I met them yesterday actually. Talk about a coincidence huh?" he looked at me with that amused smile again. "With your skills I think that you would've ended up being friends with them anyways."

I knew what he meant. He probably figured that I would have tried out for the tennis team and made it. Who knows? If I did do that I probably would end up playing a match against his team eventually. I pretended to smile again. "Come on, I only beat one boy and to top it off he was new on the team and needed help." Atobe's eyes narrowed and his smirk faltered. "You can stop the act now, I know your faking."

I remained unaffected by his acclaimed knowledge. It was silent again; I sat back in my seat and looked out the window in front of me. I sighed. "You're right, he was pretty easy to beat. Not to mention that he needs some major help with his return shots, so he should probably work on that. He was two seconds faster with returning my bubble bounce then my swirly serve. He's probably had practice with someone who serves like that." I said with a sad smile on my face_. If I had to guess, I would say Wakashi had faced Ryoma once before. My bubble bounce was closely related with his twist serve, I'll have to ask him.'_ Atobe remained calm and his smirk slipped back on to his face.

"I knew it, you have been practicing. You shouldn't have lied to Wakashi though, he probably feels really bad knowing that not only did he lose to a girl, but she doesn't even need to practice." I smiled at him, he was so naïve thinking he knew all about my life within twenty-five minutes of knowing me. "Who said I was lying about not practicing? I simply stated that he was an easy opponent. Nothing more."

His smirk faltered again. The car stopped, and we were in front of my house. It was time to end this conversation. "Well Atobe, it has been a pleasure getting to know you in this short amount of time." I slid my body over to the door and grabbed the handle, but before I could leave he grabbed my wrist lightly. I turned to see his smirk turned on completely and his eyes glittering with mischief. He spoke full of confidence. "Next time we meet, entertain me with your tennis again. I'm looking forward to it."

I shook his hand off my wrist and got out of the car. I turned back to the car's window and mouthed the words "not a chance" with my mouth. The windows were tinted but somehow I knew he saw them. The car then drove away and I made my way up the steps and through the front door of my house I heard the T.V. going, probably with the football game that was supposed to be on tonight. I took off my shoes and yelled "Honey! I'm home!"

I did that as a joke a few years back and it kind of stuck with me ever since. I walked through the house until I got to the family room. My dad was sitting with a bowl of chips in his hands cheering for his favorite team.

He looked up at me, but quickly drew his eyes back to the T.V. set. "Welcome home. How was your day?" He seemed interested in the game and me, and was deciding whom to listen to at the moment. I walked behind him since he was on the couch and started to ruffle his hair. He had short hair and I've always loved running my fingers through it. "It was pretty good. I ran into the tennis team from Hyotei while I was skateboarding."

That seemed to catch his attention. "You mean that rich school that's fifteen minutes down the road that we were thinking of sending you too? Weren't you going to the park?"

"I was and I decided to take a shortcut and ran into them."

His eyes traveled down to my left arm and he frowned. "Do you mean 'run into them' literally?"

"Ha! Ha! You're funny." I said sarcastically. "No, I kind of tripped over their racket and went to return it to them, and get this! The guy thought I stole it! Can you believe that?"

His eyes were still lingering on my injury. I smiled at his concern. "Relax Dad, I'm fine it was a small scrape."

He seemed to visibly calm down.

"I'm going to go take a shower and then go to bed now. Night!"

I kissed him on the cheek and made my way upstairs. I could here him call out 'love you too' and I smiled. It hasn't even been a full week and I was already having as much fun as I had when I lived at the Echizen's. I smiled at the old memories. I made my way down the hallway that was covered with pictures from our trips. As the hallway came to an end I opened the last door on the right.

As I opened the door the first thing I noticed was that dad must have finished unpacking thoroughly today. He had put up some pictures from our London trip up in my room. I made my way to the shower and turned it on as I went to go grab a change of clothes from my dresser. When I came back inside the bathroom the water was warm. I set the clothes I had grabbed aside, and quickly discarded my own before I jumped in. twenty minutes later I got out of the shower and wrapped a bright green towel around myself and dried myself off. I quickly grabbed the clothes I had placed on the counter, and put them on. I put on a striped orange-and-white tank top with a racer back, and a pair of purple plaid shorts.

I opened the door to my bathroom and let the cold air hit me. I walked out and ran over to my full sized bed before diving under the covers. I took a quick look at my arm and noticed that because of the shower the scabs had become mushy. That was the only thing that I liked about getting hurt. Every time I got hurt I would always get a scab. I remembered that when I was little my dad would always tell me not to pick at my scabs because it would scar. It may sound strange but I liked scars. Every scar came attached with a story. I had my fair share of scars and I remember each story that came with it. Whether it was the one on my knee from falling down while hiking a trail at summer camp or the one on my upper arm I received from a friend who accidently cut me with a pen. I found them to be really cool, so to me this scar would probably become another happy memo- well, it would become _a_ memory.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning I woke up to my dad bouncing up and down on my bed. I tried to ignore him with the hope he would just give up and walk away. _Yeah, right. _"Claire! Time to wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" He screamed.

I sat up, giving up on my lost hope, and threw a pillow at him before mumbling, "I'm up already! Please stop!"

You would think I was a child from the way I whined. He laughed at my tired state. I slept with my hair wet last night, so it was frizzy and sticking up in every direction, not to mention that when I was talking to him my eyes were closed. Although I couldn't see his face, his voice turned serious for a moment as he spoke. "One of your friends called earlier and said they wanted you to meet them at the tennis courts at school today."

I froze and opened my eyes. He was at the door with his back faced toward me. "oh…." I answered quietly.

He turned around and looked at my frozen expression before changing the subject. "Anyway, I'm going to come home late again tonight, do you mind?"

I looked up and tried to muster up a smile. "Not at all, you do what you have to do. I'm probably going to have dinner with my friends anyways."

He smiled when I mentioned my friends. "Okay then," His eyes easing up slightly, "I will see you tonight honey. I Love you." He said and walked out closing the door behind him.

"Love you too!" I shouted.

As soon as he shut the door I frowned and lowered my head. I wasn't sad because he would be coming home late tonight. That wasn't it at all. I was sad because I had never told him a reason as to why I had given up tennis. He was worried when it first happened. After all tennis was my life, no, it was a _way_ of life for me. I had brought a tennis racket with me everywhere I went. So when I first stopped bringing my racket with me he started to worry. He started asking things like 'what happened?' or 'where's your racket?'. The only thing I could reply with was 'tennis is a stupid sport, I got bored of it'. Which was obviously a blatant lie. I could tell he knew it too, but he never wanted to push me into answering which I was thankful for, so he left it alone.

I sighed to myself and thought about what dad had told me about going to the school tennis courts. I got up and got changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a T-shirt that said 'see you at the play-offs'. I went to the kitchen and grabbed a granola bar and my skateboard before heading out the door. I unwrapped the granola bar and put the wrapper in my pocket while rest went in my mouth. I threw my skateboard on the ground and took off to school. Today was bound to be full of surprises at the tennis club.

As I rolled up to the gates of Seigaku I took a look around. The place looked dead. As I walked closer to the tennis courts I could hear Kikumaru talking. "I don't think I can move anymore inui." Kikumaru wined. I turned the corner to see not only Kikumaru, but also everyone on the team besides Fuji, Tezuka, and Inui on the ground holding their stomachs. I stood there taking in the amusing sight.

"Ummmm, if you called me here to take care of everyone then let me just tell you that I hate being sick, or being around sick people for that matter." I said, carefully side stepping the boys on the ground.

Fuji looked up at me with his usual smile on "Clair, glad you could make It." he said.

I walked over to him, after making it through the sea of boys, and waved a hand at him in acknowledgement. "So, what did you do to them? "I asked wearily.

Fuji started chuckling. "You mean what did Inui do to them?"

I turned to look at Inui surprised. "You did this?" I asked doubtfully.

He smiled with confidence. "Yes, it's my new protein juice that I invented for the matches coming up." He held up a big pitcher which I can only assume was the juice he was talking about. My face paled just looking at it the stuff. No wonder Kikumaru told me not to drink anything he hands me. That stuff looked like poison. Of course I should have seen his next question coming. "Would you like to-".

"Absolutely not!" I said, cutting him off and taking two steps back. Then I remembered what I brought with me. I unzipped my mini purse and pulled out a bottle of medicine. I threw it to Ryoma who somehow managed to catch it. He nodded thanks towards me and took some. He handed it out among the group of zombies known as the tennis team before throwing it back. Fuji looked at me in question. "Stomach medicine. I never go anywhere unprepared." He nodded in understanding.

"Anyways, what's this I hear about a match?" I asked Fuji.

Momo answered instead. "Well, we were going to invite you to the one we had yesterday but, you left before we could invite you." He stated bluntly.

I smiled sheepishly with one hand behind my head. "Sorry."

Oishi smiled "Relax it's fine. We were actually wondering if you would come to our match this Saturday."

I thought about it a second. _A match huh? I haven't been to one in awhile. I guess it would be all right. Dad is working during the day anyways I'm sure he wouldn't mind. I looked up at the rest of the team and smiled_. "Okay then, but I'll only go on one condition."

"Name it." Oishi said with confusion.

I smiled once again. "You have to beat them."

Everyone's face broke out in a smile."Deal!"

-SATURDAY THE DAY OF THE TOURNEMENT-

"Wow everyone is so pumped up." I stated looking around at our regulars.

Inui answered my rhetorical comment. "Everyone has been working really hard. You would be excited too, wouldn't you?"

I though about his question for a moment, I used to be excited about these things too once upon a time. Inui noticed my surprise depression attack, but the announcer cut him off before he could say anything. "All players report to the tennis courts. I repeat all players report to the tennis courts."

Everyone started walking to the tennis courts including myself. I looked at Echizen who seemed bored, but I could tell otherwise. "Hey, Echizen!"

He lifted his hat so he could look me in the eyes "What?" he said in a monotone voice.

I smirked at him. "I haven't seen you play tennis since we lived together." I said walking up beside him.

He stayed silent but kept his eyes on me. I walked ahead of him, leaving him behind, but called back to him. "Show me how much you've improved since our last game!"

Although I couldn't see it, if I had to guess, I would say he smirked as I heard him say. "Yes ma'am."

I smiled; this game could prove to be very interesting_. Oh! I almost forgot_. I ran up ahead of the group. "Hey Taka-kun!"

He turned around and smiled my way. "I haven't seen you play tennis yet have I?" I asked.

He thought for a second before answering. He looked shocked and disappointed. "You haven't!" He said, now realizing just that. "I thought for sure I would have had time to show you my tennis." I smiled to myself. I was very interested as to why he was chosen for the tennis team. I honestly couldn't see someone who possessed so much kindness to be the type of person to play tennis. Ever since Kikumaru had said that thing about handing Taka any sport related objects I had been curious as to why?

Taka had now been ranting to himself the whole time before I cut him off. "Taka," He looked up and his kind brown eyes met my anxious and determined brown ones. "I want to see why you were picked to be on the regulars. So show me what you've got 'kay?" I said bluntly.

He looked at me in surprise before his face morphed into one of determination. "You bet."

After registering our team with the tennis officials we all walked down to the tennis courts. As we were walking five freshmen walked up to us. From the way they were dressed they obviously went to our school. One of them looked up at me confused and raised a finger at me. "Oy, who is this girl?"

Everyone sweat dropped while I felt one of my eyes twitch. I strained a smile on my face before answering. "You know, it's rude to point at other people, _especially_ your sempai kid."

His face immediately paled after I said this and he bowed his head quickly. "I-I-I'm very s-sorry!"

Two other boys stepped forward and bowed too. "Please excuse our friend!" the short one said.

"We're sorry! He has absolutely no manners!" the taller one continued.

I stifled a laugh. They all looked so serious. The three looked up at the sound of laughter. "Relax, it's fine, I was only messing with you. Lighten up would you."

All of the boys sighed while the boy who originally pointed at me shouted. "No matter how you look at it, that wasn't funny!"

I took a better look at the three boys. The one who I 'yelled' at had brown hair and eyes and looked to be a freshman, actually all of them looked to be freshmen; he also wore an orange and green striped shirt and had a unibrow. The boy stepped forward and introduced himself. "I am Satoshi Horio and I have two years of tennis experience." He stated proudly.

I laughed a bit to myself at the latter of his introduction. Next the short boy came forward. "Hi, mi name is Kachiro Kato, it's nice to meet you."

Finally the tall boy came forward and introduced himself. "Hello, my name is Katsuo Mizuno, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Both of the boys sported what looked like the school's gym uniforms, and had black hair with a pair of black eyes to match. Two girls, who also looked to be freshmen, took me from my thoughts. They both wore the school uniform so they obviously went to my school too. "Hey! Did you forget about us?" She boldly turned to me while her friend followed her. "I'm Osakada Tomoka, and this is Sakuno Ryuzaki!"

She said pointing to the girl behind her. The one who talked looked to be that loud kind of person. She had light brown hair that was worn up in two pigtails. Her friends behind her seemed to be looking at the ground, like she was to shy to talk. She had Dark brown hair long hair that was worn in two braids and brown eyes.

I bowed slightly before introducing myself to all of them. "My name is Clair Brown. It's a pleasure to meet you all!" I said a little louder so they all could hear me.

Tomoka then ran over to me. "It's nice to have another girl here to cheer our team to victory!" she said rather loudly.

I cringed at the volume, and pitch, of her voice. I put a hand behind my head and forced a smile. "Nice to be here?" I said unsure.

Cheering was the last thing I was going to do at a tennis match. Maybe I'll clap a little, but that's where I draw the line. Then I realized something, I looked over to the girl who stood quietly behind Tomoka. "ummm, excuse me, Sakuno?"

Sakuno looked up to the ground as she heard me call her name uncertainly. "Did you say your last name was Ryuzaki?" I asked.

She nodded her head. _Ryuzaki. Ryuzaki. Ryuzaki. Where have I heard that name before?_ This was going to really bug me? "Was there something you wanted to know?" Sakuno asked curious.

I put my hands in front of my self and waved them defensively trying to ease her nerves. "No! No! It just sounds familiar, that's all!" I said quickly, not wanting her to get the wrong idea.

Momo butted in on the conversation. "We probably told you about her. I mean, her grandma _is_ our coach." Momo said.

"Ooooh! You mean Ryuzaki sensei? I still haven't met her yet, is she here?" I asked.

I had heard a lot about her and wanted to meet her. But something still didn't feel right. I remember Momo telling me about her but… it's like I heard her name a long time ago. But ugh! I don't remember where!

"Hey Clair~."

"Huh?" I looked up to see Momo waving a hand in front of my face and everyone staring. "You okay their Clair? You spaced out for a second?"

I knocked Momo's hand out of the way. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, now what were you saying?" I said a little annoyed.

Momo just smirked at my reaction. "Well before you spaced out~," I growled at him, and he smiled once again! "I was saying that Coach Ryuzaki is waiting for us down at the tennis courts, so you can meet her then. " He finished off.

"Well then what are we waiting for? Off we go!" I said and dashed forward taking Momo with me in the process. He stumbled slightly and screamed some incoherent things at me. I was so anxious I just ignored him and kept running.

I stopped abruptly and turned around to the rest of the group. "Well aren't you guys coming? Think of this as your warm up!" I said before I continued dragging Momo along with me to the tennis courts.

As soon as I said that the team could consider it a warm up everyone followed us to the courts. Needless to say I fell behind everyone. As I arrived to the courts with Momo everyone was already sitting down on the bleachers. I rushed down the stairs and after almost tripping I made it to the team, of course with Momo right behind me. Inui stood up with a bottle in his hand. "Momo, Claire you were the last ones here that means," he holds the drink closer to us and smiled at us like a pedophile would at a child. "Penalty tea." He said eerily. Momo and me paled.

Before he would make me drink I intervened. "Technically Inui, Momo was behind me this whole time so, he came in last." I said eyeing the cup with caution.

I had never tried any of his drinks and I didn't plan on trying them anytime soon either. Momo looked at me angry. "Don't sell me out!" He screamed.

I shrugged. "Sorry Momo, better you than me!" I said pushing Momo in front of me.

"No one is going to be drinking anything, okay?" I looked past Inui to see an older woman with an exasperated look on her face.

"Inui I told you already, No protein juices at tournaments alright?"

Inui seemed to look a little depressed as he headed back to his seat. "Yes, Ma'am."

I kept my eyes glued to the stranger in front of me. She turned back and sighed to herself before spotting me. Quickly a smile formed on her features. She walked toward me and placed her hand out. "You must be Clair right? I'm Coach Ryuzaki. It's nice to meet you."

I immediately took her hand and shook it. "I should be the one saying that! I've heard so much about you." I said excitingly.

"Good things I hope, now let's get this over with." She said dropping my hand and looking toward the team.

"Okay team, here's the line up against Fudomine." She said seriously.

Everyone had their eyes in coach Ryuzaki now. "Doubles 2: Fuji and Taka, doubles 1:Kikimaru and Oishi, singles 3:Kaidoh, singles 2:Echizen, and finally singles 1: Tezuka. Everyone let's show them what Seigaku is made of!" Ryuzaki shouted.

"Yes Ma'am!" everyone replied.

I snickered a bit to myself eager to see this match. I could tell from how pumped up everyone was that these were going to be some good matches. From the corner of my eye I saw Inui flipping through his book. I wonder what kinds of things were in there. "Hey Inui?" I said.

He looked up. "Yes?" he answered patiently.

"I was wondering what are you always writing in that black book of yours anyways?" I asked curiously, honestly interested.

He smiled before replying. "This is all the data I could gather on everyone playing in this tournament, as well as some other important people." He stated as if it were common sense.

Then it hit me. "Wait a minute, does that mean you have stuff about me in there too?" I asked cautiously.

Once again he answered as if it were common knowledge. "I have some data on you, but nothing that's of any use to me. Unfortunately I can't speak English, so I can't go on American websites to look at whatever data you had over there."

I sighed in relief. I didn't want him knowing anything about my life other than the things I tell him. It might become a problem if he finds out about some of my past. "So then, who is the captain of the other team then?" I asked testing him.

He sighed. "That's not even a challenging question, I don't even have to look in my book for that one." He put away his book and looked up at me, disappointed with the easy challenge.

"Tachibana Kippei, birthday: August 15th, height: 179 cm, weight: 67 kg, an all-around player, his dominant hand is his right hand." He explained.

"Don't you think it's a little weird though?" I questioned.

Inui looked at me confused. "What do you mean Clair?" Kikumaru asked, completely ignoring the manners that state the rules: no eavesdropping.

I stared off in a random direction thinking to myself. "Well, he has to have some sort of background right? He couldn't have been picked captain for nothing. Especially, since they all made it this far in the tournament." I explained to myself.

Coach Ryuzaki interrupted my thoughts on the subject. "You're right." She said with a touch of sadness. I looked up, honestly surprised that my hypothesis was right. Ryuzaki continued. "He wasn't allowed to play last year in the tournament do to unknown reasons." She said suspiciously.

Oishi spoke up. "Inui do you have anything on why they weren't allowed?" he asked.

Inui shook his head. "No, no statements were released to the public as to why he wasn't allowed to play. We can only assume that he did something wrong to be band from the tournament." He said thoughtfully.

I looked to the benches next to us, observing the other team. Momo followed my gaze. "They don't look like anything special! We can take them." He said confidently.

"Idiot, don't underestimate your opponents." Kaidoh scolded.

Momo got angry. "What did you say stupid viper?" he taunted.

Before the fight could get any further Tezuka interrupted them. "Momoshiro he's right," he said in a monotone voice. "Just because they look weak doesn't mean they are. Don't let your guard down." He ordered.

After hearing that Momo straightened up. "Yes sir!" he said. Everyone else on the team just snickered.

The man on speakers announced the matches would begin. "Good luck Taka! You too Fuji!" I said before they walked on the court.

Taka turned around and looked at me determined. "Clair, I'll show you my tennis now, so watch me." He said.

I nodded my head in encouragement towards him. "Of course!" I replied.

They both stepped out onto the courts and the match begun. Fudomine was leading until Fuji did the most amazing thing. He hit a shot that didn't bounce. I blinked my eyes in reassurance. I looked at my peers for an explanation. "Wha-what just happened?" I said confused.

"That's right." Said Oishi. " You've never seen Fuji use his triple counters have you?" he asked.

"Triple what?" I said. Not taking one glance away from Fuji. It had almost looked as if the ball had crawled along the court.

"What you just saw was one of Fuji's triple counters." Inui said. "That shot was called tsubame gaishi it's just one of the three counters our prodigy has invented." He said with a smile on his face.

So Fuji invented those moves, when I heard people call him a prodigy I took it lightly. But he truly is the tensai of Seigaku just like Oshtari was of Hyotei. "I wonder what it would be like to play against someone like him." I said quietly to myself.

Unknown to me though Tezuka and Coach Ryuzaki had heard it and turned to see me smiling, a tad viciously, at Fuji.

As the game progressed I saw why Kikumaru told me never to place anything sport related into Taka's hands. When he held that racket in his hand it was like he had become a different person. Not to mention that the shot he performed, the hodokyu, was so powerful that it had ripped right through his opponents strings on his racket. Which of course left me speechless. I probably would never be able to return that ball, at least not without severe training. Everybody cheered at Taka being able to return a shot much like his own.

"All right!" Momo cheered along with the five other freshmen that had accompanied us here.

"This game is ours now!" Kikumaru said.

I took a closer look before correcting my friends. "Not quite guys." I said glumly.

They looked at me in question "What do you mean?" Oishi questioned.

"Take a look for yourself." I said pointing to the scene that Fuji was about to cause.

Fuji had walked over and touched Taka's right wrist, the one he was holding his racket in, Taka yelped in pain. Fuji looked at him solemnly. "You took that shot for me so I wouldn't get hurt." Fuji said staring down at his wrist.

Taka was speechless. At least until Fuji rose his hand and calmly said. "Seigaku will forfeit on account of injury."

"What!" Taka screamed. "But you know how much the first game means in a tournament, and I can still play!" Taka looked to his partner pleadingly.

Fuji gave him a reassuring smile. "Don't worry, it'll be fine."

Taka paused a moment before nodding his head and walking over to us. He kept his eyes glued to the ground, ashamed of himself, while he did this. He bowed to all of us. "I'm sorry for letting you down." He said.

Kikumaru smiled before getting up and taking off his jacket. "Don't mind it Taka, we'll get revenge for you." He said while putting a hand to his shoulder.

Taka looked up and examined everyone's smiling faces before smiling himself. "Thanks everyone."


End file.
